This study compared the attitudes and reactions of thirty preschool and thirty school-age children toward a child speaker with stuttering patterns. An introduction reviewed previous literature on defining stuttering, adults' and children's attitudes toward stuttering, and the stutterer's personality traits. The children of the study rated either a normal child speaker or a child speaker with stuttering patterns on a sociometric scale. In a giving task, the children were asked to choose one of the speakers. Statistical testing revealed that the school-age children had a more negative attitude toward and less social acceptance of the child speaker with stuttering patterns than the normal-speaking child. Implications for the speech-language pathologist in treating the child stutterer are discussed.

A questionnaire based on Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences was developed and administered to forty-five second grade students in three different classrooms. Sections of the fifty-eight item questionnaire dealt with students' preferences for certain classroom activities, methods of learning, and modes of social interaction. Each student's responses were summarized to create an individual profile, indicating preference for linguistic, mathematical, and/ or spatial activity. In addition, students' preferences for receptive and/ or expressive methods of learning, and for working by themselves, with peers, or with adults were profiled.

This study utilized a mail questionnaire to survey the views of parents residing in Texas regarding the educational needs of their adolescent (ages 14-18) with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Of the 233 parents of adolescents who were reported by hospitals as recently acquitting a TBI (in 1997, 1998, or 1999) of any level severity, 79 (34%) parents responded from across the state. Surprisingly, over half (N=41) of the parents responded by indicating that their adolescent did not have a TBI. This would suggest that the attending medical professionals might not have informed the parents of the long-term effects of a mild TBI. Twenty-five parents responded to the survey and rated psychology-related and transition-related services as the most needed special education and related services for their adolescent. Services were received by 40% of the adolescents, many under categories other than TBI, and the services most frequently received as a result of the TBI were: individualized academic instruction, homebound educational services, and occupational therapy. Of the parents whose adolescent did not receive services, and occupational therapy. OF the parents whose adolescent did not receive services, 44% felt their adolescent had unmet educational needs. Parents rated the following factors as the most critical to their adolescents’ educational needs being met: level of communication between the parent and the school, the school’s flexibility with the adolescent’s rapidly changing abilities and educational needs, the sensitivity of the educator to changes int eh adolescent and family’s daily lives stemming from the TBI, the educator taking an active role in helping the child socially re-adjust, and level of communication among the educators. The findings of this study illuminate the parents’ view of special education and related service needs for adolescents with TBI. In 1990, TBI became recognized as a category under which students may be eligible to receive special education and related services as stated in the individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). However, this study’s findings reflect that, at least in the parents’ perspective, many adolescents still have unmet educational needs and the needed services are lacking. / text

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes toward physical activity and patterns of involvement among Chinese and American children. Participants were children in grades 3 and 8 in Central China (n=170) and in the Midwestern United States (n=100). Data were obtained by administering a revised inventory for children's attitudes toward physical activity (CATPA), a new CATPA inventory appropriate for grade 3, and a physical activity questionnaire. Separate 2 (Country) X 2 (Gender) X 2 (Age) MANOVAS, follow-up ANOVAs and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the data. Unlike previous findings, this study indicated that Chinese participants have more positive attitudes toward physical activity while American participants reported more involvement in physical activity. Age and gender differences in attitudes toward physical activity were also found with younger children and girls expressing more positive attitudes. Marked gender and nationality differences in both participation patterns andphysical activity preferences were also evident. The results of the present study supported previous findings that attitude is a function of age and gender. / School of Physical Education

The purpose of this study was to determine if completion of the Purdue Extension Professor Popcorn nutrition curriculum impacts third grade students' long-term knowledge about, attitude toward, and self-reported consumption of fruits and vegetables. A secondary purpose was to measure any carry-over of concepts learned, or to identify any food behaviors acquired, by surveying the students' parents.A total of 74 third-grade students and 66 parents/guardians participated in this study. Data was analyzed using SPSS, version 11.0. Descriptive analysis, frequency counts, and Pearson Chi Square were used to test 15 research hypotheses. Significant differences were found in students' attitude toward vegetables, how often they ate fruit, and how often people should eat fruits and vegetables. No differences were found in parent/guardian surveys. Results of this study provide modest support for the impact of Professor Popcorn on students. No carryover of concepts to the students' parents, however, was observed. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Educational researchers agree that learning to read is one of the most important tasks students undertake. There is also agreement that the school principal makes a difference in the instruction the students receive. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between these two statements by examining the relationship between fourth-grade students' attitudes toward reading and the involvement of elementary school principals in the reading program.The 62 target elementary schools were selected from the Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Germany Region based on student enrollment and tenure of the principal. Fourth-grade students' attitudes toward reading were measured using the Estes Attitude Scale. Principal involvement in the reading program was measured using the Cramer Inventory of Principal Involvement in Reading. The data analysis represents the results from 42 of the target elementary schools, for a return rate of 67.7 percent.The correlation between elementary school students' attitudes toward reading and the involvement of the principal in the reading program was not significant. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn:1.The attitudes of fourth-grade students in DoDDS-Germany toward reading were positive.2.The difference between the behaviors elementary school principals rated highest and those they rated lowest were verbal commitment to the reading program versus direct, specific involvement with students.3.This results of this study reinforced the conclusions of earlier studies which found that classroom teachers may be the most important element in the learning environment. / Department of Elementary Education

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of Educational Psychology

The study of preschool children's peer relations has primarily employed sociometric interviews and observations of children's social participation during free-play situations as methods of assessment. These assessments of peer relations have traditionally demonstrated lack of fit between attitude (as measured by sociometry) and behavior (observation of social participation). Often, sociometric peer preference and acceptance does not correspond to children's observation of social participation during freeplay. The present study was designed to improve this attitude-behavior fit by developing the Crystallized Sociometric Scales which employed post stratification of opinion responses. Subjects consisted of 65 preschool children between three- to five- years- of age, divided into two preschool groups of 45 and 20 subjects. Interviews on both the traditional sociometric scales and the crystallized sociometric (weighted with questions on peer exclusivity and friendship concept) were obtained. Observation of social participation used Parten's category of play with interval time sampling. Sociometric analyses of data provided a child by child picture of the social structure of the peer group. The discrepancy scores between social participation and the traditional and crystallized sociometric variables were compared using t-tests. Results indicated that peer exclusivity provided the best attitude-behavior fit and was significantly better than the traditional nomination score. The level of the friendship concept did not affect the social participation of children. Crystallized ratings were not significantly different from the traditional ratings. The stability of the Crystallized Sociometric Scales was moderate, although it was significantly better than the traditional sociometric scales. It was concluded that crystallized sociometric nominations provide a methodology to improve the attitude-behavior fit. Although correlated, sociometry and social participation measure different aspects of peer relations whose relationship can be influenced by measurement procedures. / Graduation date: 1992